Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 27)

“You will have more leg room if you sit behind Anita.”

“I don’t need as much leg room as you do. I’ll be fine.”

“No,” Olaf said.

Nicky smiled, but this time it was a baring of teeth like a dog snarling.

“Stop it, both of you,” I said.

“Not precise enough for me to have to stop,” Nicky said.

“Do you want me to make it so you have to obey me?”

“Not really,” he said.

“Then please just stop for now. Okay?”

“I’m your Bride. Your wish really is my command.”

“Is it that complete, the control she has over you?” Olaf asked.

“It can be,” Nicky said.

“Can be, but isn’t?” Olaf asked.

“I’m not into slaves, Olaf,” I said, “and my power with Nicky seems to recognize that. Now, are you driving, or do we need to get in the other car so Nicky can drive?”

“I am driving.”

“Fine. Then drive.”

“He sits behind you, not me.”

Nicky drew breath to protest and I said, “Nicky, please just sit behind me.”

He did it then because I’d told him to, or because of the “please.” I wasn’t sure which, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. I also wasn’t sure why Nicky was needling Olaf more than normal, or why Pierette had made herself look as close as she could to his victim preference. What the hell was going on, and why didn’t I know about it? So much for me being anyone’s master.

52

WE’D PLUGGED THE address into my phone, so the tinny voice was giving us directions. Except for that, we drove in silence. Normally Nicky and I are fine riding in silence, and Olaf was, too.

I was enjoying being able to see the forest and the trees in daylight. It looked like a good place to go camping if I ever had enough time for a vacation, or if I found anyone willing to camp with me, or if I still enjoyed camping. I mean, if it was really important to me, wouldn’t I have done it by now? I hadn’t been camping in nearly ten years. Was it an old hobby that I’d outgrown and my interest was just nostalgia, or was it something I needed to make time for and enjoy again?

Something about planning the wedding had made me think things like that. I mean, Jean-Claude was never, ever going camping on purpose. Even if daylight wasn’t a danger to him, he just wasn’t a backpack-and-hiking-boots kind of guy. He owned more high-heeled boots than I did. He was all about appearance, and I was so not. I hadn’t thought that was a problem until he wanted a wedding very different from what I wanted. If he’d been the girl, it would have been easier. Then he could have had the fabulous dress, and I could have worn a tux.

“Are the two of you not talking because I am present?” Olaf asked.

I blinked and realized that I hadn’t been seeing anything: not the trees, not the car, not Nicky, not Olaf. Shit, I couldn’t afford to lose my edge that completely around Olaf. The thought of just how oblivious I’d allowed myself to be with him sitting beside me made the pulse in my throat throb and my heart race.

“What did I do to frighten you?” he asked, and sounded genuinely puzzled. He didn’t even make a creepy remark about liking the way I smelled when I was scared.

Nicky answered, “She let her attention wander with you sitting beside her. She thinks it was careless.”

“You’re right behind her. You literally have her back.”

“I take care of myself, damn it, and if I need backup it’s not supposed to be because I get careless.”

I was angry at myself, and that anger wanted to spill onto the men in the car. It wasn’t logical, but then anger seldom is. Luckily for all of us, I had been working on my anger issues in therapy. Otherwise God knew what I would have said or done: something to hurt my relationship with Nicky permanently or accidentally pull the pin on Olaf. If I ever did the last part, I wanted to do it on purpose.